Roméo et Juliette

Conductor: Yves Abel
Director: Jean-Louis Grinda *

Romeo: Pene Pati
Juliet: Nadine Sierra
Mercutio: Lucas Meachem
Friar Lawrence: James Creswell
Count Capulet Timothy Mix
Tybalt Daniel Montenegro
Duke of Verona Philip Skinner
Stephano Stephanie Lauricella *
Gertrude Eve Gigliotti *
Gregorio SeokJong Baek
Benvolio Christopher Oglesby
Paris Hadleigh Adams


Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette was presented last night at the San Francisco Opera.  This was very pleasing due to our stars Nadine Sierra and Pene Pati. Theirs was a very sweet and gentle romance.

The sets were abstract but functional.  There was no balcony.  I always remember visiting Juliet's balcony in Verona.  It's very plain and in an ordinary street.

Nadine sings around the operatic world and is by now well known.  Pene Pati is a newcomer with a beautiful, sweet voice that suits this role perfectly.

Another name worth mentioning is Lucas Meachem as Mercutio.

After Britten we were pleased to hear melodies and beautiful choruses.  There's a lot more chorus in French opera than there is in Italian opera.  We were treated to some actual sword fights, though the stabbing was with a dagger. 

Faust from London

 👍🏻
Conductor: Dan Ettinger
Director: David McVicar

Faust Michael Fabiano
Méphistophélès Erwin Schrott
Marguerite Irina Lungu
Valentin Stéphane Degout
Siébel Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Gounod's Faust came to a theater near me from the Royal Opera in London where it was live on April 30.  Faust is a kind of morality myth of no specific era, so it cannot be considered regie that it is staged for the period of it's original appearance in 1859.  The settings bring the story to life.  I always remember that the Germans call this opera Marguerite.  For at least its first 50 years this opera was wildly popular, but musical tastes have moved on, and it's heard now as a bit corny, I think.

Erwin Schrott played Méphistophélès for laughs, something he's very good at.  I loved Michael's voice in his aria "Salut, demeure chaste et pure."   I enjoy his style as a romantic hero very much. Irina Lungu was a replacement for Diana Damrau who I understand has a slipped disc.  I liked her.

This is as close to a traditional production as you are likely to see these days.

This is the second opera where I've seen Erwin in a dress.  The other one was Verdi, I think.  This role better suits the voice of Rene Pape, but Erwin is much funnier and cuter.  The Walpurgis Nacht is done as a ballet with a dancer appearing as pregnant Marguerite.  Valentin comes back from the dead, followed by an orgy.  Marguerite appears with her baby.  Then a small casket.  Then a jail.

The ending is perfection.  Marguerite rejects both Faust and the Devil, prays to God, and an angel appears to declare her saved.  Faust is again an old man.  The Devil laughs.

It worked for me much better than the Met version.

Carmen in San Francisco

👍🏻
Conductor: James Gaffigan *
Production: Francesca Zambello

Carmen J'Nai Bridges
Don José Matthew Polenzani
Micaëla Anita Hartig *
Escamillo Kyle Ketelsen
Zuniga David Leigh *

After a production of Bizet's Carmen where people raced cars, Francesca Zambello's production was a welcome change.  At least there were no psychiatrists (see other Carmen).   This production is new to us, but I think it started out in London.  It was visually plain but clarified the plot in an excellent manner.  I especially liked the orange tree in Act I.  We heard the opera comique version which comes with spoken dialog.  It goes by pretty fast.

We all liked best our Micaëla, Anita Hartig, who has appeared on the Met HD series as Liu in Turandot with Nina Stemme and Micaëla in Carmen with Anita Rachvelishvili. She is seasoned in her role and has a beautiful voice.

Our two main characters Carmen and Don José were both making their role debuts.  This is a situation where one should attend at the end of the run when everyone has settled into their character.  Carmen is especially difficult here.  She dominates every scene with arias (sung lying down sometimes, a modern fad.  We blame Anna Netrebko), dancing, flirting, castanets, anger, love, just about anything you can imagine.  It is necessary to be careful not to get hurt.  By the end of the run she would be able to focus more on her singing.

I couldn't decide about Matthew.  Does the part not sit right for his voice?  He is a tenor I like very much, but something sounded rough in his voice.  He played Don José more out of control than anyone I have ever seen.  She knows she will die, it was in the cards, and does not care.

I enjoyed it.  It's a beautiful opera.

Les Troyens from the Paris Opera

I am viewing a film of Berlioz' Les Troyens from the Paris opera.

Conductor:  Philippe Jordan
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov

The Trojans at Troy

Aeneas: Brandon Jovanovich
Cassandra: Stéphanie d'Oustrac
Coroebus, Cassandra's fiance: Stéphane Degout, bass

Something like a movie marquee announces in French and English that the Greeks have abandoned their positions around Troy, and the war is over.  The streets fill with celebrators.  This is a regie production of Berlioz' Les Troyens from the Paris opera.  The characters are introduced with text at the top of the screen.  Priam looks a lot like Generalissimo Franco.  The billboard clarifies the action as perhaps never before.

I found Act I very coherent.  We don't see a horse, but the death of Laocoon is vividly described.  Cassandra warns and laments, but no one listens.

Where Act II should begin, we see soldiers with automatic rifles enter and shake hands with Aeneas.  Hmm.  So are we to believe he is a traitor?  His wife is dead and sends him a note explaining she is ashamed by his betrayal.  This is unclear.  Perhaps I have completely misunderstood.  His own people still seem to honor him.

Priam and his wife are shown dead.  Stéphanie d'Oustrac is wonderfully intense.  The men all head off and leave the women to die or be taken into slavery.  They choose death, and Cassandra goes up in flames.  I seem to remember a play by Euripides called The Trojan Women which describes a somewhat different fate for them.

This part of the opera is well presented.

The Trojans at Carthage

Dido: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Aeneas: Brandon Jovanovich
Anna: Aude Extremo
Narbal: Christian Van Horn

A title announces that we are in a Psychological Center for Victims of the War.  The set looks a bit like a hotel lobby.  This is my third insane asylum opera after Carmen (also Tcherniakov) and Oberon.  This part of the staging has nothing to do with either Berlioz's opera or the staging of the first half.  Yes, people in war are often in need of psychiatric care, but the opera is about the triumph of Rome, not mental illness.  Perhaps it is better to just listen.  The audio is gorgeous.  This staging is definitely boo worthy.

I may never have realized before what a great opera for chorus this is.  Dido enters and the chorus holds up a homemade sign saying "Tu es notre Reine." [You are our queen.]  Aeneas's son holds up his cell phone to show pictures of Troy to Dido.  Ach!  One is interested in the translation because nothing in the visuals is giving you a clue.  I missed before that these people of Carthage are from the eastern Mediterranean, just like the Trojans.  That explains a lot.

A black guy comes in and Aeneas tries to beat him up.  Weird.  The essential feature of an insane asylum is the keepers who now enter in red vests and lead everyone out.  It is hard to imagine any other tenor besides Jovanovich playing this scene.  I'm determined to watch it to the end, but it gets goofier and goofier.

In Act IV the patients are in a circle, and enact a story.  They hold up signs to indicate where they are and what is going on.  The title of the story is "La Chasse Royale."  Perhaps you will recall that Dido and Aeneas go out into the country on a hunt.  "The forest" is next.  The audience for these signs appears to be Dido alone.  We have nymphs and naiads and satyrs.  When the sign says "The marriage of Dido" [you're not required to trust my translations], Aeneas is handed a bow and arrow which he waves around.  He shoots Dido's companion and Dido faints.  The arrow is theater, and the companion is fine.  We were wondering why they would give a mental patient a weapon.

Dido goes back to her room, and a ping pong table appears.  Two keepers in red vests then proceed to play ping pong and sing about triumphing over the Africans. These are Dido's advisers?  Oy.  They plot the marriage of Dido to Aeneas.  There has been nothing that even remotely resembles ballet.

This director seems to be under the impression that psychiatric treatment consists of arranging fantasy scenarios for the patients.  Problems arise because the patients react as though they were real.  This doesn't correspond to any therapeutic method I have heard of.  In a nuthouse apparently anything can happen.

When everyone else has left the stage, Dido and Aeneas sing a very gorgeous version of "Nuit d'ivresse," one of the most beautiful duets in all of opera.  The ending is kind of cool.

Samson et Dalila in HD

👍🏻
Conductor................Mark Elder
Production...............Darko Tresnjak

Samson..................Roberto Alagna
Dalila.....................Elina Garanca
High Priest.............Laurent Naouri
Abimélech..............Elchin Azizov

Today was the HD broadcast of Camille Saint-Saëns' opera Samson et Dalila.  There was a lot of complaining about this very flashy production, but except for the rather perverse ballet I loved it.  I can't help wondering if the Philistines would have dressed so colorfully and the Israelites in contrast so drably.  One imagines really more similarity.  The production handled well the task I normally assign to it--explaining the plot.  Each transition of the story is well demonstrated.

Les Huguenots

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Conductor : Michele Mariotti et Łukasz Borowicz
Director:  Andreas Kreigenburg

Marguerite de Valois, catholic queen : Lisette Oropesa
Raoul de Nangis, protestant: Yosep Kang
Valentine: Ermonela Jaho
Urbain, Queen's page: Karine Deshayes
Marcel, Raoul's servant: Nicolas Testé
Le Comte de Saint-Bris : Paul Gay
La dame d’honneur : Julie Robard‑Gendre
Une bohémienne : Julie Robard‑Gendre
Cossé, un étudiant catholique : François Rougier 
Le Comte de Nevers : Florian Sempey 
Tavannes, premier moine : Cyrille Dubois
Méru, deuxième moine : Michal Partyka
Thoré, Maurevert : Patrick Bolleire
Retz, troisième moine : Tomislav Lavoie
Coryphée, une jeune fille catholique, une bohémienne : Élodie Hache
Bois-Rosé, valet : Philippe Do
Un archer du guet : Olivier Ayault
Quatre seigneurs : John Bernard - Cyrille Lovighi - Bernard Arrieta - Fabio Bellenghi

From Paris Opera Bastille I have found a film of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, 1836, which I wanted to watch live on Thursday.  The action takes place in 2063[?] according to a text on the screen.  The Catholic men wear clown-like ruffs around their necks while the protestants look a bit more like business men.

In Roberto Devereux we heard "God Save the Queen" in the overture.  In this opera the well known tune incorporated into the story is Luther's "Ein feste Burg."  This is to represent Protestantism.  Les Huguenots precedes Roberto Devereux.  We know that Meyerbeer was Wagner's patron and got him his start in composing operas, which might help to explain the presence of the Dresden Amen in Tannhäuser and Parsifal.  In spite of his rants against Meyerbeer, imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.  Perhaps it serves to suggest an aura of religious feeling.  I digress.

I'm finding the production pretty hard going.  I have no background with this opera.  I am here to see Lisette Oropesa, and here at the mid point I must say she is magnificent.  The first scene is men and the second is women, with the queen's page going back and forth between them.  What is one to make of religious persecution in the future?  The set in Act II is very beautiful and includes a bit of nudity.

I am exploring this opera and am surprised to see a male chorus singing "Rata plan"  See also Donizetti's La fille du régiment, and Verdi's La Forza del Destino.  Again, this opera  appears to be the first.  I didn't realize how much borrowing went on.  There's a lot of choral work which I am finding unattractive.  Verdi bombast is somehow more fun.  Things going on in my soul are also interfering with my enjoyment of this opera.  I am tired of hatred and violence.

There is a line across Europe across the Alps dividing the descendants of  Roman culture and the descendants of Vikings, Germans, etc.  The former group remained catholic while all of the north, except maybe Poland, changed to protestant.  I have always felt that when Luther went to Rome, he was mostly experiencing culture shock.  However, in the Catholic countries were also pockets of Protestantism.  There were two results:  war and immigration to America.  My German friends would always ask why we had so many religions in America.  Because when you chased them out of Europe, they came to us.  Again I digress.

Yosep Kang has a very beautiful tenor voice but fluffs a high note later on.  As a lyric tenor he's wonderful.  As a dramatic tenor not so much.  Ermonela Jaho hasn't had much to sing in the first half but sings a lot in the later acts. Jaho is well known in Europe but has not really crossed my path that much.  All the big coloratura show pieces are for the queen while Valentine is a full lyric type with very little coloratura.    That seems to be the pattern with Meyerbeer.  All the coloratura arias are for a specific voice.  I admit to not being wild about any of these operas.

The greatest influences on Wagner seem to be Meyerbeer and Liszt, Meyerbeer for the heavy orchestration and dramatic style, Liszt for the invention of the tone poem which provides the through-composed concept applied to the full act of an opera.  I have to say I very much prefer mythology to politics for opera plots.  The only hit tune from this opera, other than the borrowed one, is the page's aria in act I.

Le Prophete from France

Conductor:  Claus Peter Flor
Director:  Alfonso Caiani

Jean de Leyde, tenor, John Osborn
Fidès, Jean's mother, mezzo-soprano, Kate Aldrich
Berthe, Jean's bride, soprano, Sofia Fomina
Jonas, an Anabaptist, tenor, Mikeldi Atxalandabase
Mathisen, an Anabaptist, bass or baritone, Thomas Dear
Zacharie, an Anabaptist, bass, Dimitry Ivashchenko
Oberthal, a feudal count, bass, Leonardo Estevez

Meyerbeer's Le Prophete (1849) came to me from Toulouse by way of Culture Box.  My only live experience of Meyerbeer was L'Africaine at the San Francisco Opera.  I begin to think Meyerbeer is neglected, perhaps not in France but certainly here.  Perhaps Yannick will change this.

Giocomo Mayerbeer was a truly international composer as very few are.  He was born in Berlin of rich Jewish parents, studied and composed extensively in Italy in the time of Rossini, and then established himself in Paris and Berlin. We know him primarily for his French operas.  However, Robert le Diable was written for Berlin.  It is hard to grasp that such a prominent composer is virtually unknown to me.  As would be expected, his works are orchestrated in the German style, emphasize chorus like a French opera and don't particularly follow the Italian ideal of bel canto.  I think I should delve further before making any decisions about him.  He is the main proponent of Grand Opera, a style that includes:

(a) obligatory spectacular scenes,
(b) death, not happy endings, in librettos by Scribe, (including this one),
(c) potpourri overture,
(d) extended ornate arias, though less ornate than bel canto,
(e) chorus and ballet, and
(f) a new heavier type of dramatic tenor as the featured hero.

Opera in Disguise

Sacramento State Opera Theater presented two short operas with a common theme:  one or more characters are in disguise.  The great disguise opera is La Cenerentola where the Prince and his valet exchange places. Both roles are well developed.

There is a small orchestra positioned behind the singers.  I have been in this theater when it had a pit, and the remnants of the pit are still visible.  So why don't they use it?  The supertitles were virtually invisible, and other signs of disrepair were all around.

Conductor:  Ryan Murray
Director:    Omari Tau

Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (1946) by Pierre Petit

Sylvia, a young Parisian    Angela Yam, soprano
Lisette, her maid                Tatiana Grabcluc, soprano
Dotante, a young Parisian  Nathan Halbut, baritone, guest artist

Sylvia is expecting a visit from her betrothed, a man named Dotante.  They are betrothed but have never met, apparently.  Sylvia and Lisette change places, which consists primarily of putting the maid's outfit onto Sylvia.  When a young man arrives, he claims to be Dotante's servant.  The two pretend servants get along very well and decide once the disguises are revealed that marriage would be a good idea after all.

This is a relatively modern piece and is therefore through-composed.  The music was sweet and charming.  I liked both of the young women in this work, and would have liked to hear more of Tatiana.  Angela is beautiful and appeared also in the next opera.

Il campanello di notte (1836) by Gaetano Donizetti

Serafina, a young bride                       Angela Yam, soprano
Don Annibale Pistacchio, an apothecary  Justin Ramm-Damron, bass
Enrico, Serafina's cousin                      Jordan Krack, baritone, opera theater alumnus
Spiridione, Don Annibale's servant      Jacob Burke, tenor
Madama Rosa, Serafina's mother        Valerie Loera

Don Annibale, an old man, has just married Serafina who is much too young for him.  Their family members are celebrating the nuptials.  A cute bit of business occurs when Don Annibale and his new mother-in-law dance together and she leads.  Enrico arrives and has a long duet with Serafina for the most operatic section of the piece.  She is not encouraging, and Enrico leaves after toasting the groom.  This scene would have been improved with visible supertitles.

Don Annibale dresses for bed with his new bride, but before anything can happen, Enrico arrives in three disguises, each needing a prescription.  From here it is a major slapstick tour de force for Enrico.  He looks and acts like an idiot in all three of his disguises.  The audience screamed.  The most amazing thing about this opera and probably the explanation for why you have never seen it lies in the lines for disguise number 3:  they have a long list of ingredients for the prescription which they recite like a patter song.  How is this even possible?  Jordan Crack carried this entire opera.

It was Donizetti and therefore featured extended sections of secco recitative played on an electric piano.  It was too loud.  I always say sing with the music, not the conductor.  Here there was no choice.  The conductor faced the musicians at the back, even when playing the electric piano.  The singers either faced each other or the audience.  No one got lost or confused.

This is fun, and you will never see either of these operas again.

Cendrillon in HD

A carriage in the form of the French word for carriage.

👍🏻
Conductor...............Bertrand de Billy
Production..............Laurent Pelly

Cendrillon (Lucette)....Joyce DiDonato
Prince Charming.........Alice Coote
Fairy Godmother.........Kathleen Kim
Pandolfe................Laurent Naouri
Madame de la Haltière...Stephanie Blythe

Today we were treated to the first production of Massenet's Cendrillon ever to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.  We begin with a French conductor, a French production and a Frenchman to speak the only spoken dialog heard in the opera.  The rest of the cast is not French but is nevertheless spectacular.

The story divides into three contexts:  1. The home of Pandolfe, his wife Madame de la Haltière, his daughter Lucette and his two stepdaughters.  2.  The palace of the King and his son Prince Charming.  3.  A dream-like fairy land populated by the Fairy Godmother and her minions.

Manon at the San Francisco Opera

👍🏻
Conductor: Patrick Fournillier
Director: Vincent Boussard

Manon Lescaut: Ellie Dehn
Chevalier des Grieux: Michael Fabiano
Lescaut: David Pershall
Comte des Grieux: James Creswell
Guillot de Morfontaine:  Robert Brubaker
De Brétigny:  Timothy Mix
Poussette:  Monica Dewey *
Javotte:  Laura Krumm
Rosette:  Renée Rapier

Last night was the fourth performance of Massenet's Manon at the San Francisco Opera.

I find it helpful to contrast the plot of this opera with Puccini's Manon Lescaut.  To begin Massenet's heroine arrives in town on the "coach" on her way to the convent.  In our production she looks like Eliza Doolittle.  Puccini is similar.  In Puccini Lescaut is Manon's brother while in Massenet he is her cousin.  In both versions there are rich old men who want Manon.  In our production virtually all the characters are introduced in the first act but no effort was made to clarify who they were and how they relate to the story.  There was just a lot of meaningless milling around until Manon and des Grieux arrive.

In Massenet we see des Grieux and Manon living together and see that their separation was caused by the elder des Grieux kidnapping of his son.  In Puccini we go immediately to Manon living with one of the two old men as the result of her brother's dealings.  And when she attempts to escape her keeper, he has her arrested and shipped to America.

Massenet focuses on the relationship between des Grieux and Manon, a much more romantic and appealing approach.  After des Grieux's departure, Manon takes up with one of the old men.  The staging of Manon's gavotte is the highlight of the production.  She is seen high above the stage holding a large bunch of balloons and then floats down to the floor.  Fun.  I was worried she would have to sing from the flies, an acoustic dead spot.

When des Grieux is kidnapped by his father, he goes into the religious life and orates on the meaning of life.  This allows for the sexiest scene in all of opera:  the scene at Saint-Sulpice.  Manon has not forgotten des Grieux and goes to the church to seduce him away from his religious calling.  She succeeds.  "Isn't this my hand?"

The couple get involved in gambling and are arrested for cheating.  They have created their own fate, far less depressing than Puccini where they both die in Louisiana.

This performance was saved by music.  Our lovely French conductor kept the action moving and supported our romantic pair.  Ellie Dehn handled well all the changes of style of her role and sounded lovely.  Michael was intense and exciting as always.  His voice fills our house with ease.  Together they made a very romantic couple and brought the audience to applause over and over.  I loved it.

Thaïs on the Radio

Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Production: John Cox

Thaïs:  Ailyn Pérez
Nicias: Jean-François Borras
Athanaël: Gerald Finley
Palémon: David Pittsinger

Because I am an admirer of Ailyn Pérez, I am listening to the Saturday radio broadcast of Jules Massenet's Thaïs.  This production debuted with Renée Fleming in an HD simulcast, so I can still visualize the sets to a limited extent.  Ailyn begins the opera in the blond wig seen below.

Towards the end her hair gets shorter and rattier.  I've been following Ailyn Pérez since almost the beginning of the blog, and I am a fan.  This is a perfect role for her.  Finley is also very good.  The applause was enthusiastic.

Hamlet at West Edge

Conductor:  Jonathan Khuner
Director:  Aria Umezawa

Hamlet:  Edward Nelson
Gertrude, Hamlet's mother:  Susanne Mentzer
Ghost of Hamlet's father:  Kenneth Kellogg
King Claudius, Hamlet's Uncle:  Phil Skinner
Ophélie, Hamlet's fiance:  Emma McNairy
Polonius, Ophélie's father:  Paul Cheak

Hamlet (1868) by Ambroise Thomas was presented by West Edge to open their festival at the Pacific Pipe warehouse in Oakland.  The abandoned train station which was the venue for last season was recently condemned by the city of Oakland due to a recent fire that resulted in casualties.  This resulted in a scramble to find a new space.  I for one was not particularly happy with this.

In a nearby building were people preparing for Burning Man.  Somehow you knew that this was a Bay Area phenomenon.  They played very loudly amplified low pitched thumpy music throughout this performance.  It was like your stereo was malfunctioning and all you could get were the lowest notes.  I thought it was very annoying.  There were three large doors in our space which were kept open.  One faced the other space where the noise originated.  It seemed to me that closing this door would have gone a long way toward reducing the thump thump roar not composed by Thomas.

I could go into a rant here.  Not the right repertoire, etc.  I liked the singing but couldn't see very well.  What if the stage were in the center of the space?  I don't know if this would work. I very much regret having to give this a pan.

Carmen from Aix-en-Provence

Carmen, José, Micaëla

👍🏻
Conductor:  Pablo Heras-Casado
Production:  Dmitri Tcherniakov

Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Carmen)
Michael Fabiano (Don José)
Elsa Dreisig (Micaëla)
Michael Todd Simpson (Escamillo, toreador)
Gabrielle Philiponet (Frasquita)
Virginie Verrez (Mercédès)

Over undisclosed pathways I found my way to Bizet's Carmen from Aix-en-Provence.  I will try to explain it, but it may take a while.  My source shows only French subtitles.  Above is the end tableau.  Carmen was originally an opera comique with spoken French dialogue, and this is what we have here.  This allows our producers to change the dialogue to whatever pleases them, including adding characters not in the original libretto.  Last summer our Carmen included Lillas Pastia, the owner of Carmen's nighttime hangout, in a speaking role.

We appear to be in the lobby of a business in a room filled with large brown leather chairs.  An official appears periodically throughout the performance who does not sing and seems to be the head therapist in a radical experimental therapy group.  At first Fabiano (in a light blue suit and sun glasses) and Dreisig (in a pink coat) are an engaged couple who are here to seek help before marrying.  Legal disclaimers are signed.  Watch, wallet and phone are given to staff.  Fabiano puts on a name tag "José" and Dreisig leaves.  Clearly this is what I would call a concept staging.  I thought it worked.  If the characters are modern people, then it is easier to understand what is going on emotionally.

This is closer to the basis for Carmen than the stagings usually are.  Carmen needs a policeman to assist with certain aspects of her smuggling operation, and Don José is chosen.  So it's all a con.  Our staging is more theater than con, but the effect on José is similar.

Men enter bearing name tags that say "Soldat" and sit in the brown chairs.  The lady in the pink coat returns but everyone ignores her.  The soldiers first sing in their normal voices and then later they open their mouths and children's voices come out.  Hmmm.  They hold up smiley faces and José laughs.

Then suddenly the men bring out wine and girls enter smoking cigarettes.  Everyone drinks.  The atmosphere is very casual and relaxed, and I enjoyed this.

The entrance of Carmen is something to experience.  She bursts on the scene wearing pants and warning everyone not to fall in love with her.  She flirts with everyone but gives the flower to Don José.  I loved her madly and understood why José would fall for her.  She looks and sounds gorgeous and sings with great intensity and joy.  After choosing him, she leaves.

The woman with the pink coat returns, calls herself fiance, and puts on her "Micaëla" name tag.  This is the duet where she brings a kiss from mama.  Carmen returns and there is an extended scene where José tries to tie her up with his necktie.  The Seguidilla is sung from a chair.  The lights come back up, everyone leaves except José, and we have the end of Act I.

In Act II the plot thickens.  We are attempting to understand what about all this is its therapeutic purpose.  Projection?  Perhaps girlfriend is dissatisfied with his level of passion.

The girls with Carmen return.  The toreador comes out smoking a cigar and sings his big aria.  Carmen really likes him and goes off with him.  The men point guns at José long enough to upset him, and then smiley faces come out the barrels, making him laugh.

Carmen returns with castanets, argues with José and tells him to go back to his barracks.  Escamillo is her real interest while José is only pretend.  He responds by singing The Flower Song.  Beautifully.  This staging emphasizes the importance of Don José.  Michael Fabiano basically carries the opera.  Carmen responds by praising only liberty.  They fight and everyone else on the stage applauds.  For them this indicates success.  Shall we continue or not?  End of Act II.

In Act III José is still on the stage while the music plays.  Then the lights come up and the psychiatrist comes out along with the others.  The decision has been made to continue.  Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès play the card game.  The two girls discuss their fortunes, but Carmen draws the death card.  José stares at them.  We're trying to decide if the therapy has gone wrong.  He has clearly lost his sense of what is real and what is not.  Something resembling a staff orgy ensues.  This would be a hell of a job.  José watches from above.

José fights with Escamillo.  Micaëla returns.  This whole act is very chaotic.

In Act IV something odd happens.  José is still there looking on, but a new client has arrived.  The music of Act IV plays while the scene is staged to resemble Act I.  The new guy's name tag even says José.  Except all the fizz has gone out of Carmen.  Our José stabs Carmen multiple times, but this is all fake since the knives are not real.  The opera ends with the staff on stage getting out the wine, the new José receives flowers which ours never did.  Carmen isn't dead and tries to comfort our José along with the returned woman in the pink coat.  This is sort of a WTF ending.

We are certain of only a few things:  that we love Stéphanie d'Oustrac and think Michael Fabiano is absolutely fabulous, especially for being able to establish so many different moods. The music was not destroyed by this regie production.  I like trying to figure out what is going on, but the ending didn't clarify anything.  It seems the therapy has backfired.

Diana Damrau Meyerbeer

I bought Diana Damrau's new recording Meyerbeer Grand Opera because I am virtually unfamiliar with his work.  In 1988 I saw L'Africaine at the San Francisco Opera with Shirley Verrett and Placido Domingo.  I think this is the only Meyerbeer opera I have seen.

Diana is the perfect soprano for this album with her big voice and spectacular coloratura.  Meyerbeer was the principle composer of French Grand Opera, the dominant form of opera in the middle of the 19th century.  He focused on giant subjects suited for huge spectle.  She is the grandest diva we have today.

We have arias from 10 different operas in three languages.  There is pleasing variety.  For the lover of coloratura it is very highly recommended.

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Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire

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Le temple de la Gloire (The Temple of Glory) is an opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire.  This is all rather well explained in the Mercury News.  This performance by Philharmonia Baroque and the New York Baroque Dance Company was of the 1746 version in a prelude and 3 acts.

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
New York Baroque Dance Company, Catherine Turocy, director
Philharmonia Chorale, Bruce Lamott, director
Catherine Turocy, stage director and choreographer

Gabrielle Philiponet, soprano:  Arsine, Une prêtresse, Plautine
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, soprano:  Lydie, Une bacchante
Camille Ortiz-Lafont, soprano:  Une bergère, Érigone, Junie
Artavazd Sargsyan, haute-contre:  Un Berger, Bacchus
Aaron Sheehan, haute-contre:  Apollon, Trajan
Philippe-Nicolas Martin, baritone:  Bélus, Un guerrier
Marc Labonnette, baritone:  L'Envie, Grand prêtre
Caroline Copeland, principal dancer.

This is a large and complex undertaking.  There is at least as much dancing as singing.  There are three supplicants to enter the temple of glory:   Bélus, a conqueror who forces the kings he has defeated to carry him in on a sedan chair; Bacchus who celebrates love and wine; and the emperor Trajan, who forgives and releases those he has conquered.  Only Trajan is deemed worthy.  We are viewing Voltaire's outlook on virtue.  I understand it to have been a failure because it did not enjoy the king's approval.

This is something that modern commercial opera productions simply don't do--an attempt at an authentic reproduction of a Rameau theatrical work as it would have been presented at the time.  A modern company like the Santa Fe Opera will make the frog Queen look as much like a real frog as possible, such as in Platée here.  Or Glyndebourne will stage his characters inside a refrigerator, such as in Hippolyte et Aricie here.  Or the Bayerische Staatsoper will choreograph break dancing, such as in Les Indes Galantes here.  So an attempt to show something as it might possibly have been in the eighteenth century is a rare treat. The period style dancing was pleasant to see.  A peak part of the dance experience was when someone danced an ostrich in the Bacchus act.

The music still sounded very sweet and nothing like Handel.

The stage is well populated and the stories complex and a bit hard to follow.  There is an intended political message.  Our kings should be seeking more than their own glorification.
 

Michael Fabiano at Mondavi

I went out in the pouring rain to see Michael Fabiano at Mondavi in Davis. His accompanist was Laurent Philippe.  He said they'd been working together 12 years.  We were seated at small tables on the stage.  This is an enjoyable intimate arrangement.

I have seen Michael live at the San Francisco Opera in Lucrezia Borgia, Luisa Miller, and Don Carlo.  In 2014 I predicted he would win the Richard Tucker Prize, and he did.  That was fun.  Next season in SF he will sing in Manon opposite Nadine Sierra, and at the Met next season he will simulcast in La Boheme.

I got the impression that Michael very much loves his chosen repertoire for this recital.

Four songs by Puccini (Italian)

Four songs by Duparc (French)
    Duparc is not performed nearly enough.  These were virtually theatrical performances.

An aria: "Ne pouvant reprimer les elans" from Hérodiade by Massenet. (French)

Five songs by Toscanini (Italian)
    Who knew Toscanini composed?

"Kuda, Kuda, kuda" Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky (Russian)
     This is very timely since it is currently playing at the Met.

Three songs by Barber, including "I hear an army" for a rousing finish.  (English)

He is a serious artist and does not hesitate to use his operatic voice in song repertoire when suitable.  It was very much worth the trip.  There were two encores:

Duparc's "La vie anterieure" (French)
'Lamento di Federico' from Cilea's L'arlesiana (Italian)

 

Orphée et Eurydice

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My education with regard to Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice is woefully inadequate.  In part to compensate for this I have purchased this DVD of Orphée et Eurydice starring Vesselina Kasarova.  The other reason was to see more of Kasarova.

This is the version created by Hector Berlioz in 1859 for Pauline Viardot, making it a legitimate vehicle for a star like Kasarova.  The role in Italian was written for a castrato, and in French it is often sung by a haute-contre (French high tenor).  Only since 1950 has the role been taken by a countertenor.  At Glimmerglass I saw Michael Maniaci who bills as a male soprano.

The curious feature of this production is the genderless costuming.  Whatever style is on display, it is worn by both males and females.  I've always wondered what this would be like.  At first everyone is dressed in men's tuxedos.  The fires of hell are tended by laborers in bakers' hats. Then we see Greek outfits which look a bit odd on the men.  Then back to tuxedos.

An annoyingly large amount of time in this not that long opera is consumed by ballet.  If you are French, this probably is not a problem.  The chorus mimes an orchestra.  Vesselina does not play her violin, but she sings and acts gloriously.  To fully understand why Berlioz would make such an arrangement for Viardot requires that you see such a towering performer in the role of Orphée.  It is a tour de force.

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Weekend in Paris

American Bach Soloists presented a program of French Baroque music in Davis with Jeffrey Thomas conducting.  French music is not as known as German or Italian music of the same period, so for me this was a treat.  Only Rameau is familiar to me.  The program points out that the end of Lully's monopoly made this explosion of music possible.

Roméo et Juliette in HD

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Conductor:  Gianandrea Noseda
Production:  Bartlett Sher

Juliette:  Diana Damrau
Roméo: Vittorio Grigolo
Stéphano, Roméo's page: Virginie Verrez
Mercutio, Roméo's friend:  Elliot Madore
Frère Laurent:  Mikhail Petrenko
Tybalt:  Diego Silva
Pâris:  David Crawford

There was a time in the history of the Metropolitan Opera when Gounod's Roméo et Juliette was the most frequently performed opera in the repertoire.  Today's performance reminded us of why this might have been true.  This is by far the most emotionally intense performance of this opera that I have experienced.  Some of this may have had to do with the fact that Bartlett Sher directs it both as a play and as an opera.

Last scene of Carmen

 Carmen: Final Scene (Elīna Garanča, Roberto Alagna) 

This may be the best scene from an opera ever filmed.  Both are so spectacularly good you simply cannot believe it.